This invention relates to an improved apparatus for use with a toilet and more specifically to an apparatus for using water with suspended particulate matter as the cleansing fluid while flushing a toilet.
In waste water management two categories of water quality have been established, "black water" which includes human waste in the sewerage, and "gray water" which includes all waste water being handled by residential or building sewerage systems except "black water". Reclaiming systems have been used to recycle "gray water" from showers, sinks, washing machines, and other similar devices that use water. In the past reclaiming "gray water" for use with toilets has generally involved collecting the "gray water", filtering it to remove the larger suspended particles, and then introducing the filtered "gray water" to a toilet reservoir. Typical systems for introducing filtered "gray water" to a toilet reservoir are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,449 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,825. A problem still remains in that the filters used with these systems have to be cleaned periodically. Cleaning filters is a dirty, time-consuming task. Cleaning filters can also be a dangerous task if the operator does not take precautions to protect himself from the bacteria which can live in a typical sewerage system. A system that does not get clogged by the suspended particles in "gray water" could eliminate the need for filtering.
Studies have shown that approximately 33% of the water used in a household is used to flush toilets. Flushing a conventional toilet uses a relatively fixed amount of water, typically several gallons. With a conventional toilet, contents of a toilet reservoir drain into a toilet bowl when a reservoir valve is opened. Once most of the water has drained, the reservoir valve closes. In the bowl of a conventional toilet a dam, rather than a valve, controls the level of water collected in the bowl. Sufficient water has be to flushed through the bowl so that at the end of a flush some of the water is trapped by the dam to prevent gasses from flowing back into the bowl from the sewerage system. The trapped water also helps to keep the bowl clean as excrement drops into the bowl. But this structure has no way of independently draining the bowl of liquid wastes since the dam is of a fixed height.
There are other controls sometimes used in the bowl of a toilet other than a dam. Marine toilets, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,278,665, provide check valves in the discharge path to prevent "black water" sewerage from coming back into the bowl. These valves are controlled by pressure differentials between a pump and a discharge port to make sure that the "black water" flows overboard or to some other separate sewerage disposal system. But check valves do not provide an independent way of draining the bowl. Check valves also do not aid in conserving water since they only keep fluid flowing in one direction.
From the above it can be seen that a need exists for a "gray water" recycling system which can recycle "gray water" for use in a toilet without first filtering the "gray water". The toilet must be capable of using "gray water" with suspended particulate matter as a source of flushing water while not clogging the valves located between the toilet reservoir and the toilet bowl or between the toilet bowl and a discharge port. A need also exists for a way of controlling the release of "black water" from the bowl independently from the way of controlling water entering the toilet bowl so that water can be conserved when flushing only liquids from the bowl.